Crisis in the Danube: An (Austro)-Hungarian Civil War AAR

[RedTemplar]

Crisis in the Danube
An Austro-Hungarian Civl War AAR

The Background
(From KR's text)
Although Austria was on the winning side of the Weltkrieg, the war’s main impact was to reveal the Empire’s significant weaknesses and utter dependence upon Germany. Over the course of the 1920s one disaster followed another: Emperor Karl died in 1922 causing the throne to pass to his 10 year old son Otto; Austrian industry collapsed in face of competition from German manufactures; and the quarrels of the Czechs and ethnic Germans in Bohemia nearly pushed the Empire into civil war. Finally, the humiliation of having to call in German mediation to resolve the deadlock of the Ausgleich negotiations in 1927, which resulted in the concession of autonomy statutes given to Bohemia and Galicia, seemed to signal the end of Austria as a Great Power.

However, many feel that there is new hope for the Osterreich - now that the Emperor Otto I has come of age and the terms of the ‘Great Compromise’ are to be renegotiated at the 1937 Ausgleich next year. Could this be the time for Austria to throw off her shackles of dependence on Germany and reassert the power of the Habsburg dynasty over her Empire?

The Scenario

Emperor Otto sits on the throne of a shaky crown. At this point, it would be debatable if the Austro-Hungarian Empire can still truly be called an empire -- or if it even remains Austro-Hungarian. With nationalist sentiments on the rise and a growing number of Magyars clamoring for independence, and with the creation of semi-autonomous states thanks to German meddling in the 1327 Ausgleich, the base of power in the Empire has been severely decentralized.

With the 1937 Ausgleich approaching, there remains a chance to restore what was once a powerful Imperial dynasty. But Vienna is crowded with diverse agendas and ideas, all of which are vying for supremacy in the coming year. Some would favor an authoritarian, purely Austrian state; others, a more centralized and powerful dual monarchy; still others call for federalism. An outdated army needs to be modernized, and the debate over force composition and doctrine remains strong in Austrian military camps.

This is a time of great change for Austria... But for better or for worse?

The Details

Part of me had really wanted to try a Hungarian game in DH, but I want to wait for the patch to come out before I embark on that journey... I'm rather fascinated by all of the varying options that can come out of the Austria-Hungary scenario in KR, and it's just one of my favorite mods of all time. So with that in mind, I'm playing Kaiserreich for DH with a few custom mods:

- The units folder from DH Full has been imported to KR, and changed as follows:
- Build time of land and sea units reduced by 35%
- Build time of air units increased by 20%
- Build time of brigades unchanged, except for Military Police, which is reduced to 60 days
- The cost of certain decisions has been lowered to make them more accessible (most notably, War Games now costs 600 instead of 1,000)

I like the slower build times of DH -- say what you will about the historicity of raising regiments in such a long period of time, but I like how it cuts down on the overall number of divisions and makes for less superstack-grinding.

My goal is to get to the Ausgleich and have it result in some form of civil war, and I'll save/reload at the Ausgleich event until it happens. Don't know yet who might be for/against me, or what concessions I might make or not make to other countries. All I know is I want a bloody, violent civil war. If I win, I'm open to voting on whether to go the Austria-Hungary or Danubian Federation route. If I lose, well... I'll pick up as whatever nation wins the war and continue the AAR from there.

So now that my Fascist France AAR is over, and I'm still chugging along through my EU3 Savoy AAR (though it's stopped temporarily while I try to fix a bug), my new venture is going to be this little romp through Austro-Hungarian politics

 

[Timmie0307]

I did one in normal KR HoI 2 terms (on hold due to time problems) but it is a very interesting start. The worst that could happen is that Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia will declare war against you after the negotiations...which is quite hard but further I wish you the best of luck. Will you push for the Austrian Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Empire, total annexation or staying with some sort of Dualism?

Tim

 

[yourworstnightm]

Usually pushing for Centralism pisses at least the Hungarians of. The reaction of the others varies.

 

[John Forseti]

With the Second American civil war, the Spanish Civil War, the Second Russian Revolution and now the Austro-Hungarian Civil War, the 1930s would be forever known as the decade of implosion.

 

[coorta88]

With the Second American civil war, the Spanish Civil War, the Second Russian Revolution and now the Austro-Hungarian Civil War, the 1930s would be forever known as the decade of implosion.

You forgot Romanian civil war, Chinese civil war and Indian civil war.....

 

[John Forseti]

You forgot Romanian civil war, Chinese civil war and Indian civil war.....

And those! : D

Although I don't think you can say theres an Indian civil war when it hasn't been a single unified country... yet.

 

[RedTemplar]

When you put it that way... Yeah, KR DOES have a lot of civil wars... As for the Ausgleich I'll either propose Centralization or Federation -- in any event, I need Hungary to fight so I can annex them and get the event chain that lets you make a single country out of either the Dual Monarchy or the Danubian Federation. So whatever option I pick, I've got to be sure that Hungary fights it.

Along the way I'm very open to being convinced as to WHICH route to take... I would enjoy writing an AAR with any of those outcomes, really.

 

[RedTemplar]

The Beginning: January 1936

Politics & the Cabinet

In Otto's youth, he had sat behind a Regency Council which had governed the country before his coming of age. But as the year prior to the Ausgleich dawned, he remained fully seated in control of his intact, yet fading, empire. Directly beneath him served Count Albert Mendsdorff-Pouilly, Minister-President of Austria and a former member of Otto's Regency Council.

The Austrian cabinet in January of 1936, one year before the 1937 Ausgleich.

The rest of the cabinet was composed largely of Austrian aristocrats, military officers, and other high-profile figures within Austrian national affairs, but each of them knew that their time might well be short. The Ausgleich would not only bring deliberations as to the future arrangement of the Empire as a whole, but changes within Austria itself were postulated, as well.

The Imperial Armies

The armed forces within the Austro-Hungarian empire could be divided between two general categories. The first was the joint armed forces of the Empire, designated K.u.K. (Kaiserlich und Konigslich, or Imperial and Royal), the "Imperial Austrian and Royal Hungarian" armed units stationed across the Empire in a number of poorly equipped units.

The other, territorial to Austria itself, was the Landwehr, the army kept for Austria's own defense, designated K.K. (again, Kaiserlich und Konigslich, but in this case, Imperial Austrian and Royal Bohemian) army units. Austria's army outsized any individual constituent of the Empire, but even the Landwehr itself was in an outdated and somewhat disheveled state.

The Landwehr, which was composed of a total of 15 infantry divisions spread across five corps, was organized along lines reminiscent of the Great War -- units of conventional infantry supported by supporting formations of heavy artillery. Each corps was constructed according to a set formula: 3 infantry divisions per corps, with one artillery brigade attached to each corps. It also contained a single corps of two elite Mountaineer divisions equipped with artillery, and a lone Cavalry division.

K.K. Landwehr Order of Battle, January 1936

The deployment of the K.K. Landwehr in January of 1936, with units marked and described below.
​

(1) - K.K. Landwehr Central HQ
-Field Marshall Beyer
-- 1st Mobile Command Unit (HQ)

(2) - K.K. 1st Inf. Corps
- Lt. Gen. Kubena
-- 1st Infantry Division
-- 2nd Infantry Division (Artillery Brigade)
-- 3rd Infantry Division

(3) - K.K. 2nd Inf. Corps
- Lt. Gen. Bohme
-- 4th Infantry Division
-- 5th Infantry Division (Artillery Brigade)
-- 6th Infantry Division

(4) - K.K. 3rd Inf. Corps
- Lt. Gen. von Brudermann
-- 7th Infantry Division
-- 8th Infantry Division (Artillery Brigade)
-- 9th Infantry Division

(5) - K.K. 4th Inf. Corps
- Lt. Gen. Wessely
-- 10th Infantry Division
-- 11th Infantry Division (Artillery Brigade)
-- 12th Infantry Division

(6) - K.K. 5th Inf. Corps
- Lt. Gen. von Schonburg-Hartenstein
-- 13th Infantry Division
-- 14th Infantry Division (Artillery Brigade)
-- 15th Infantry Division

(7) - K.K. 1st Mtn. Corps
- Lt. Gen. Zaiser
-- 1st Mountain Division (Artillery Brigade)
-- 2nd Mountain Division (Artillery Brigade)

(8) - K.K. 1st Dragoons
- Mj. Gen. Bassler
-- 1st Cavalry Division (Armored Car Brigade)

The Air Force and Navy

Austria's national air force, unlike its army, was a small affair. A pair of naval bomber squadrons provided Austria with some ship bombing capacity, and two extremely outdated interwar-era fighter squadrons provided the primary air defense of Austrian soil.

The navy, while officially designated as a joint Imperial force bearing the K.u.K. designation, relied heavily on Austrian units, led by a core of 6 battleships and supported by a host of increasingly smaller vessels, totaling 23 ship and flotillas in all, under the leadership of Grand Admiral Miklos Horthy, a Hungarian by ethnicity and highly decorated naval commander of the Great War.

======

Just a bit of flavor and setup regarding the opening status of the Empire. I did a little shuffling around of cabinet members to increase IC and decrease my Infantry build cost/time, and kept the organization of the army pretty much as it is out of the box. I merged all the various small fleets into one big 23-flotilla monster, and then separated the two submarine units as their own force. I'm aiming to post the first actual -action- update shortly, following the speculation and debate leading up to Austria's approach to the Ausgleich.

I'm very open to your opinions on two things in particular:

1 - What to strive for when the time comes? Should I push for the Danubian Federation, or a return to the centralized Dual Monarchy?

2- Future army composition... There's not much I can do now, with IC in the low 50's, Black Monday coming soon, and only one year to build before the Ausgleich, but once the war tides over, I can do a lot! Should I go for a combined arms approach like Austria's current doctrines suggest, or should I transfer over to another doctrine path?

 

[coorta88]

Basically, if you choose to create Danubian Federation, in real life, everyone will be happy except Hungarians.
If you choose more rigid version of what exist in 1936, you will make Hungarians relatively happy, but piss everyone else in the Dual monarchy.

Anyway. We will have completely revised version of ausgleich soon ready...

I also plan to add events about Romanian opportunism, if Hungary goes to war with Austria.....

 

[RedTemplar]

A completely revised Ausgleich? I"m guessing you're connected to the KR team, then... What's changing/when's it coming? If it's significant and nearby, it might be worth waiting to dive right into the action here.

 

[jpasher]

Go for a decentralised federal structure, it's easier to keep it all together, you'll get most of the puppets' good stuff anyway and you're less likely to get attacked. And it saves you administering the provinces you can't be bothered with...

 

[coorta88]

A completely revised Ausgleich? I"m guessing you're connected to the KR team, then... What's changing/when's it coming? If it's significant and nearby, it might be worth waiting to dive right into the action here.

Yes, I´m member of the kaiserreich team. In short what has been changed.

1. There is no option for Austria to dissolute empire, since it was deemed completely unrealistic - you can keep status quo, federate it or centralize it
2. For each option Hungary will have option to either agree or press for dissolution of empire.
3. If Hungary refuses to keep status quo, federate it or centralise and decided to press for dissolution you can try to bribe them into not leaving empire by offering them either parts of empire ( such as offering them Bosnia - but not Galicia - but Hungary is no longer able to gain cores upon Bosnia but instead it can keep Bosnia as puppet state or give it to Croatia ), offering them status quo, or if you hard centralist, break negotiations and turning to German empire as mediator
4. If Hungary agrees to centralization, you will basically inherit them ( but not with cores, as is in this version of Ausgleich ). Then a series of events starts in which you will be able to pres various parts of monarchy into full unity with you - they can refuse it ( low chance - resulting in you either accepting their secession or declaring war on them - you won´t be able though to gain cores upon nothing more than Sudetenland - you will gain cores on the whole pre 1927 monarchy if you control important provinces and choose to reform either into Dual-Monarchy or Danubian Federation).
5. If Hungary agrees with federalization, it will hand over Croatia to you and Otto becomes HoS in every part of Empire ( Galicia, Bosnia, Croatia, Bohemia, Montenegro ).

Be warned that Ausgleich ( unless you have luck and Hungarians agrees with centralization ) brings many risks.
1.Italy might decide to go to war against you for Venice.
2. Poland might decide to go to war with you over Galicia.
3. Montenegrian revolt will surely happen
4. German Empire might turn on you - depends on how will they resolve their mediation issue
5. Bohemia might turn to on you and try to take control over Upper Austria
6. Bosnia might secedes completely from Empire and joins Serbia
7. Croatia might be tempted to declare war upon you ( since you control Pola province, which is CRO core )

 

[RedTemplar]

Go for a decentralised federal structure, it's easier to keep it all together, you'll get most of the puppets' good stuff anyway and you're less likely to get attacked. And it saves you administering the provinces you can't be bothered with...

Well actually, that's the point of this AAR. I WANT Austria to get attacked and locked in a nasty, horrible, bloody civil war. I don't simply want to posture myself for success -- I want to fight tooth and nail for every inch of the Empire, and against Italy too if need be, to create a new future for Austria forged in the fires of war

 

[Timmie0307]

Then I will be following this more closely , I always liked the way Austria was portrayed in kaiserreich, I tried it once now in DH but it is quite hard when Poland AND Italy declare war on you. plus that all of the minors (croatia, Bohemia, Hungary) are in a war against you (quite unbalanced )

Tim

 

[General_Hoth]

it depend on the personnality you want to give Otto. If he's a good guy, go Danubian. If he's a arrogant bastard, centralize all!

 

[jpasher]

Well actually, that's the point of this AAR. I WANT Austria to get attacked and locked in a nasty, horrible, bloody civil war. I don't simply want to posture myself for success -- I want to fight tooth and nail for every inch of the Empire, and against Italy too if need be, to create a new future for Austria forged in the fires of war

Well, in that case move all government to Vienna, outlaw the use of every language but German and just to be sure ban Christmas, Hanukkah and all other holidays of any religion apart from your own birthday. And on the international scene, assassinate somebody's arch-duke. That'll be sure to get 'em worked up.

 

[GulMacet]

Yes... more Austria for everyone! If only there would have been a competent Kaiser instead of that fool Franz Josef, and we might still have a proper Empire today instead of the state of bureaucratic deadlock we have now.

But you can still make it happen! Oh, and if you need any Austria-related infos, you can always ask me. I'm happy to help with an accurate portrayal of my home.

 

[MastahCheef117]

I neeeed this game.

Maybe for Easter :3

And also, good start I will be watching...

 

[RedTemplar]

@GulMacet: Appreciated! Admittedly I don't know much of Austria's history -- I'm really only working with what's present in the Kaiserreich Wiki and a little Wikipedia research on Austria-Hungary, so it'll be useful to have someone who actually has a good knowledge of Austria as his home.

@GeneralHoth: Well, the Kaiserreich wiki says that Otto himself has a great admiration for democratic systems, so the Danubian Federation is likely the route he would favor -- it's less a matter of his personality and more about the struggle between Otto and his other leaders who might have other plans.

 

[unmerged(130734)]

I'll be following this one definitely!! My idea was - just like yours - instead of a real war, this should be a civil war, with events for partisans, and chances to ally others. For more ideas, visit the Kaiserforum topic about the Ausgleich (http://cs.servegame.com/kaiserreich/showthread.php?tid=296). my post on this matter

...but if war ensues in A-H, the current event setup just doesn't seem right. Currently, it is like a regular war, but in reality, this should be a real civil war. Just look at the ethnicity borders of this time period. More than f'd up.

The two major combatants (A & H) could have allies: for example the Poland & Hungary had friendly relations since the early middle ages (there is even a day of Hungarian-Polish friendship now), so Poland could intervene on the side of H for Galicia (if GER stays out of the Danubian War, or supports H). Croatia could be a good ally in exchange for Bosnia & Slovenia (maybe?). Austria however could ally itself with Serbia or Romania for territorial concessions (not likely, also large German minorities in both Vojvodina & South Transylvania, and Belgrade Pact members) and also Croatia (in exchange for Bosnia). Bohemia could be a wildcard in this game of powerbalance, as Austrians would like to have its Germans under direct control (or atleast puppetship), so if B is going for complete independence there should be a possibility of an alliance with H, on the other hand Austria could promise the Slovakian territories in Hungary to them.
There should also be strong partisan activity.

Later on, if there is a clear victor, either victor should have the opportunity to ignore its promises, causing another war (and dissent ofc), or staying true.
Peace events after the war are very important: as of now they don't really exist. My idea is that Hungary wouldn't want anything but independence (except maybe historical Croatia-Slavonia (NOT Dalmatia!), and independence for Poland. Austria would go for the pre-1867 status (if possible unification of all A-H).

Anyway, good luck, and keep it up!